Reflective Essay #11 Any Last Words?

Even though we only just read about The Hulk for class today I would have to say that The Hulk is the superhero that I knew least about and now know reasons for his anger. Anyone who has had as hard of a childhood as Brune Banner is definitely going to have some built up anger in his system from having such an abusive father. I always believed that The Hulk was just angry because of the tranformation like a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde thing but now that it is because he only had a supportive mother and was a very awkward kid when he was little, I understand a lot more for these rage outbreaks. Who wouldn't want to just release all of that anger that you have had all of your life just so you could feel better?

I don't think any superhero that I already knew about had my opinion change about them. I think I had a prettu good grasp on each of the superheroes that we talked about throughout the class. A lot of them I really got into because I understood the articles that we read and liked disecting what it is about the superhero that makes them super or that makes them stand up for certain beliefs. I guess the one superhero that I never really thought about possibly being a villain was Professor X and then vise versa for Magneto. The thought that their roles in the X-Men could potentially be switched as villain and hero was quite shocking. MAgneto is just trying to save the mutant race in a way and Professor X, you could say, is trying to control the mutants and their powers. The idea that this could be happening made me look into the X-Men a little differently and what is really means to be a villain or a hero.

I have learned through class about myself that a lot of us are just like superheroes and if we just tried hard enough to tap into specific things that would make us super we could be. I never thought of myself as being a superhero and with some of our previous reflections I realized that I'm not sure if I would be that successful as a hero. I am to connected to my family and friends that I would be putting them in a lot of danger if my villains ever realized who my secret identity was. And my moral code might be scewed if any of my friends or family were personally attacked. I would definitely want revenge on those who would ever try to hurt my loved ones.

Because Spider-Man is one of my favorite heroes I wish we could have done more discussion in class on him. I mean, he was brought up once in a while for other discussion about certain articles and whatnot but I just wanted to go into more detail about him and his story and compare other superheroes to him. I did, however, really like the discussion week about the X-Men. I think that was one of my favorite weeks of class because they are the first team of superheroes that was more human that the rest and it is just because of genetic mutation that makes them super not necessarily their origin story or anything.

I think that a lot of the heroes we have talked about could qualify as the "good citizen". The most obvious would be Captain America and Superman, but we can argue that Batman and darker superheroes could be good citizens as well. Because almost all of there heroes hold "American Values" of freedom and justice, almost everyone looks up to that and wants to be just as great as them. But that isn't everything that makes up a good citizen. Even The Watchmen can be good citizens because they take into heart the greater good of the people, especially when initially figuring out Ozymandias' plan. They want what's best for the city and every single person in it than just the system of the city as a whole. They would take care of each individual person if they could, a lot like how Captain American or Superman probably would. Every hero I believe is a good citizen and protrays different values that if you were to put them all together you would definitely get a "Super Citizen".